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Project Officers, Schools at British Council Nigeria

The British Council is the world's leading cultural relations organization and creates opportunities for people in the UK and worldwide to understand each other, to work together and learn from one another. We see this as crucial to building secure, more prosperous and sustainable futures for us all. We build trust and understanding between different countries and cultures and develop strong international links that are of benefit to people in Britain and the rest of the world.

We are recruiting to fill the below position below:

Job Title: Project Officer, Schools Directorate or Region: SSA

Department/Country: Programmes/Nigeria

Pay Band: 4

Job Type: Fixed Term Contract

Reports to: EES Project Manager

Duration of Job: Fixed term contract for 6 months

Purpose of Job
To work with Project Managers EES in the Programmes team to manage project delivery across the Nigeria Programmes portfolio

Context and Environment Current:

Nigeria is now officially the largest economy in Africa. It is also the most populous country with over 180 million citizens. The UK is its largest trading partner. Nigeria holds significant political power in the region and internationally and its society retains a positive attitude to the UK. Therefore, there continue to be major opportunities for the UK and British Council to build on our strong existing relationships with the Nigerian government, institutions and customers/audiences. However, there are complex and substantial risks to this work i.e. security and compliance. Nigeria is the British Council's largest operation in sub-Saharan Africa with offices in 4 cities – Port Harcourt in the south, Kano in the north, Abuja the Federal capital and Lagos the commercial centre. We also have a number of project offices across the country. Our 200 staff work across a range of states delivering large scale contracts, partnership programmes, examinations, projects as well as services in Arts, Education & Society and English & Exams. We are already achieving substantial impact and income (current annual income is £27.2 million) and have plans to grow and develop our impact further. Partners and clients include government, public and private institutions, foundations, private sector organisations and civil society. We work closely with the wider UK mission including DFID and UKTI.
Future: 42% of Nigeria's population is under 14. The government has recognised that its Vision 2020 must address the aspirations of this young population as part of its drive to achieve peace and prosperity. This has led to unprecedented interest and investment in Education, the Arts and good governance. This alignment with the UK's priorities creates a growth environment for the British Council. To be successful in this, we need to build understanding with our UK stakeholders of Nigeria as an emerging economy with substantial commercial and development opportunities as well as the challenges they may be more familiar with. In this we will seek to integrate our approach with that of the wider UK mission. We intend to expand and scale up our existing programmes, contracts and services in the Arts, Education & Society, English & Examinations and develop offers to fill important gaps such as in Skills. We also intend to ensure that we have a good balance of partnership, customer services and client funded work across all these sectors. To do all this we need to create the right enabling environment. In addition to developing the professional and technical expertise of our staff, we need to support them to build their relationships within Nigeria, the region and the wider global network. This will ensure we develop as well as adopt and use best practice. We also need rigorous and compliant frameworks to support our work in areas such as finance, tax & status, security, procurement, compliance and quality management. We have new premises in Kano and have a major premises project under development in Abuja. However, there is still more work to be done, especially in Lagos and Port Harcourt to ensure our premises and technology support our brand reputation for integrity, innovation and professionalism.
Role Context: This post will also support programmes team activity across the three business areas taking place in Abuja and the north of Nigeria. This includes (but is not limited to): English for Education System Projects Connecting Classrooms delivery in Abuja Stakeholder Engagement for the EES and Schools team in Abuja Provide coordination and logistics support in organising events that take place in Abuja Supporting inward visitor programmes

Accountabilities, Responsibilities and Main Duties Project Management and Coordination:

Support the coordination of project activity to agreed timelines, costs and performance indicators.

Be responsible for ensuring score card data entry in line with project event.

Work with Project manager to raise invoice, purchase order creation and goods receipting of orders ensure vendor and consultant payment..

Be responsible for Support Project Managers and project team in organising and managing events.

Coordinate and ensure smooth logistics in the organization of meetings with internal and external contacts on behalf

Coordinate the organisation and management of inward and outward visit schedules for internal colleagues including from the Region and UK including booking hotels and travel

Support Project Managers and maintain and update Project and Programme Plans and Briefs as well as team calendar

Financial Management:

Responsible for creating and managing programme purchase orders and ensuring appropriate management of invoicing and payment of suppliers and vendors.

Support project managers source quotations from suppliers in compliance with the corporate procurement policy

Key Relationships:

Project Managers in English for Education system and Schools; Programmes Manager, Senior Stakeholder Manager, Planning and Evaluation Manager, Nigeria Marketing and Communications team, Abuja Facilities team

Person Specification Behaviours:

Making it happen (essential)

Working together (essential)

Being accountable (essential)

Other behaviours needed for the job but not evaluated at interview

Connecting with others (essential)

Interview (Assessment stage)

Skills and Knowledge:

Managing/Coordinating Project activities: Level 1: Works with project management systems and procedures, and has a track record of compliance with them as a project team member. (essential)

Communication skills – Level 2: Listens to others and expresses self clearly, with grammatical accuracy and awareness of a diverse audience in speaking and writing. (essential)

Planning and organising – Level 2: Plans ahead; Organises own work over weeks and months, or plans ahead for others; taking account of priorities and the impact on other people. (essential)

Managing finance and resources – Level 2: Uses financial systems and processes; Uses corporate financial systems and processes appropriately as part of the job and on behalf of a team. (essential)

Using technology – Level 2: Operates as a basic user of information systems, digital and office technology; Able to use office software and British Council systems to do the job and manage documents or processes.

Previous experience in activity coordination/planning; Working knowledge of school and education systems in Nigeria. (Desirable)

Understanding of project coordination and planning. (Desirable)

Short listing & Interview (Assessment stage)

Experience:

Experience of working in any of the following sectors: education and School, governance and society and projects management (Desirable)

Note
As part of the recruitment exercise, shortlisted candidates will undergo recruitment tests in Lagos or Abuja. Interviews will be held in Abuja only. You should only fill out the application after thoroughly reading through the ROLE PROFILE & GUIDANCE NOTES. There's some important information you don't want to miss.